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Thread: Fave Books?

  1. #26
    Not a praying man Melville's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Qrazy (view post)
    Haven't read any of his major work yet, only excerpts. I'm sure I'll add him when I finally get the chance.
    Yeah, the only thing I've read by him is the first half of The Phenomenology of Spirit. But that was enough to make him one of my favorites.

    Quote Quoting Qrazy (view post)
    Have you read any Leibniz or Berkeley? I haven't, and from what I know of their beliefs I don't think I could get on board with their primary arguments but I also realize that the manner of investigation is often more valuable than the end result... so they're probably still worth while, yes?
    I've read several things by Leibniz, and his philosophy is definitely somewhat hard to get on board with. But, like Buddhism or late-period Nietzsche, it's worth reading solely for how perfectly it captures a certain limiting philosophical notion, with which other philosophies can (and probably should) always be compared.

    I've never read anything by Berkeley. He was a hard-core idealist, right? If so, his philosophy would probably fit the above description as well.

    Edit: If you know much about physics, Leibniz is also worth reading to see his completely incorrect "proof" that linear momentum is not conserved.
    I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?

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  2. #27
    The Pan Qrazy's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Melville (view post)
    Yeah, the only thing I've read by him is the first half of The Phenomenology of Spirit. But that was enough to make him one of my favorites.


    I've read several things by Leibniz, and his philosophy is definitely somewhat hard to get on board with. But, like Buddhism or late-period Nietzsche, it's worth reading solely for how perfectly it captures a certain limiting philosophical notion, with which other philosophies can (and probably should) always be compared.

    I've never read anything by Berkeley. He was a hard-core idealist, right? If so, his philosophy would probably fit the above description as well.

    Edit: If you know much about physics, Leibniz is also worth reading to see his completely incorrect "proof" that linear momentum is not conserved.
    Yeah, I've been wanting to read Hegel since freshman year but still haven't gotten around to it but I'm sure it'll knock my socks off. Out of curiousity, where are you schooling-wise? Years more so than location.

    Correct about Berkeley... we all exist in God's mind essentially. I love physics in theory but my advancement in the field came to a dead halt after first year when I realized I didn't have enough interest in math to continue with it. I've covered up through Calculus 2, Linear Algebra and an advanced introductory mechanics course but that's all. Did some basic optics and electromagnetic studies in high-school as well. So yeah I still love the ideas but I need to be harder on myself and really dive into the math if I'm ever getting to get anywhere with the stuff.

    Have you read any Seneca (stoicist)? His work mostly exists as fragments I believe but I find he's fairly interesting... very straight forward approach to philosophy.

  3. #28
    The Pan Qrazy's Avatar
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    As far as Rand goes at least I know now if I ever do get to her, to start with The Fountainhead. So thanks for the feedback folks.

  4. #29
    Not a praying man Melville's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Qrazy (view post)
    Yeah, I've been wanting to read Hegel since freshman year but still haven't gotten around to it but I'm sure it'll knock my socks off. Out of curiousity, where are you schooling-wise? Years more so than location.
    I did a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in theoretical physics, and I'm one semester into the second year of a Ph.D., also in theoretical physics. But I've only taken 7 or 8 philosophy courses. I'm actually much more interested in philosophy than I am in math or physics, so I try to read philosophy outside of classes. Are you a philosophy major?

    Correct about Berkeley... we all exist in God's mind essentially. I love physics in theory but my advancement in the field came to a dead halt after first year when I realized I didn't have enough interest in math to continue with it. I've covered up through Calculus 2, Linear Algebra and an advanced introductory mechanics course but that's all. Did some basic optics and electromagnetic studies in high-school as well. So yeah I still love the ideas but I need to be harder on myself and really dive into the math if I'm ever getting to get anywhere with the stuff.
    Yeah, it's tough to get very far in physics without some interest in the math. (I've always been about equally interested in both of them.) But introductory mechanics, and a passing familiarity with the feud between Newton and Leibniz, is sufficient to be amused by how incorrect Leibniz's argument is.

    Have you read any Seneca (stoicist)? His work mostly exists as fragments I believe but I find he's fairly interesting... very straight forward approach to philosophy.
    My knowledge of Roman philosophy is basically nil. I've been meaning to read Marcus Aurelius, but I haven't got around to it.
    I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?

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  5. #30
    The Pan Qrazy's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Melville (view post)
    I did a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in theoretical physics, and I'm one semester into the second year of a Ph.D., also in theoretical physics. But I've only taken 7 or 8 philosophy courses. I'm actually much more interested in philosophy than I am in math or physics, so I try to read philosophy outside of classes. Are you a philosophy major?


    Yeah, it's tough to get very far in physics without some interest in the math. (I've always been about equally interested in both of them.) But introductory mechanics, and a passing familiarity with the feud between Newton and Leibniz, is sufficient to be amused by how incorrect Leibniz's argument is.


    My knowledge of Roman philosophy is basically nil. I've been meaning to read Marcus Aurelius, but I haven't got around to it.
    Yeah, I can see the enormous value of the math but it just doesn't excite me as much as it needs to, to keep me motivated.

    I'm in my last year as a philosophy/psychology double major. If you have the time and the inclination you should check out Kirk, Raven and Schofield's The Presocratic Philosophers. Plato, Aristotle and the stuff that follows is essential reading but the presocratics are just endlessly fascinating, both as a window into the birth of Western Analytic thought but also because so much of their work has been lost... and their are very different schools of thought on how to piece together the fragments of their thought... what to attribute to who, which ideas came first, some of the earliest notions concerning biology and physics, etc. Plus it's helpful to read Parmenides work in order to see how it ties into Heidegger's approach to philosophy.

  6. #31
    Not a praying man Melville's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Qrazy (view post)
    Yeah, I can see the enormous value of the math but it just doesn't excite me as much as it needs to, to keep me motivated.

    I'm in my last year as a philosophy/psychology double major. If you have the time and the inclination you should check out Kirk, Raven and Schofield's The Presocratic Philosophers. Plato, Aristotle and the stuff that follows is essential reading but the presocratics are just endlessly fascinating, both as a window into the birth of Western Analytic thought but also because so much of their work has been lost... and their are very different schools of thought on how to piece together the fragments of their thought... what to attribute to who, which ideas came first, some of the earliest notions concerning biology and physics, etc. Plus it's helpful to read Parmenides work in order to see how it ties into Heidegger's approach to philosophy.
    You might find more advanced mathematics more interesting, since it eventually becomes more about abstract structures than calculational techniques (which you probably already saw to some small extent in Linear Algebra). Unfortunately, you need to work through the basics first.

    I've read Parmenides (actually in conjunction with Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics) and I think I might have read some of Heraclitus. It's great how those two so clearly define two philosophical traditions. But I haven't read anything else from that period, and I've actually been on the lookout for a good pre-Socratics collection, so thanks for the recommendation.
    I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?

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  7. #32
    dissolved into molecules lovejuice's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Melville (view post)
    You might find more advanced mathematics more interesting, since it eventually becomes more about abstract structures than calculational techniques (which you probably already saw to some small extent in Linear Algebra). Unfortunately, you need to work through the basics first.
    out of curiosity, as one scientist to the other, what's your area of research?

    i did my BS in physics, but MS and PhD in atmospheric science. i'm doing cloud statistics. basically trying to prove that such and such function with such and such parameter is best suitable to describe size distribution of clouds.
    "Over analysis is like the oil of the Match-Cut machine." KK2.0

  8. #33
    The Pan Qrazy's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting lovejuice (view post)
    out of curiosity, as one scientist to the other, what's your area of research?

    i did my BS in physics, but MS and PhD in atmospheric science. i'm doing cloud statistics. basically trying to prove that such and such function with such and such parameter is best suitable to describe size distribution of clouds.
    Are you still in your PhD or doing this for a company?

  9. #34
    Not a praying man Melville's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting lovejuice (view post)
    out of curiosity, as one scientist to the other, what's your area of research?
    General Relativity. I'm studying the self-force, which, roughly speaking, is how an object's finite mass (or charge) affects its motion.
    I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?

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  10. #35
    dissolved into molecules lovejuice's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Melville (view post)
    General Relativity. I'm studying the self-force, which, roughly speaking, is how an object's finite mass (or charge) affects its motion.
    coolio. i miss relativity. any good popular reading for a math-literate to update myself on the field?

    i'm hopefully standing with one leg outside the university.
    "Over analysis is like the oil of the Match-Cut machine." KK2.0

  11. #36
    Not a praying man Melville's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting lovejuice (view post)
    coolio. i miss relativity. any good popular reading for a math-literate to update myself on the field?

    i'm hopefully standing with one leg outside the university.
    I don't read any popular science, so I can't really recommend any. As far as I know, the only recent trends in relativity that have received any attention from the popular media are gravitational wave phenomena and dark energy.

    When you say that you have one leg outside the university, does that mean that your other leg has a postdoctoral position, or what?
    I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?

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  12. #37
    dissolved into molecules lovejuice's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Melville (view post)
    When you say that you have one leg outside the university, does that mean that your other leg has a postdoctoral position, or what?
    oh, it just means after my big presentation in january, according my advisor, we'll enter the last phrase of my thesis. i have no idea how long "the last phrase" is. but i guess i should finish no later than december 2008.

    sadly i perhaps will leave the field. i'll go back to thailand, and there's no garuntee how much or how little i can do there.
    "Over analysis is like the oil of the Match-Cut machine." KK2.0

  13. #38
    The Pan Qrazy's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Melville (view post)
    When you say that you have one leg outside the university, does that mean that your other leg has a postdoctoral position, or what?
    We're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. We've just crossed over into, the Gogol zone. Lovejuice's leg was lasted sighted attempting to flee the land of academia, clad in a gold-braided, high-collared uniform, buckskin breeches, and cockaded hat.

  14. #39
    Not a praying man Melville's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Qrazy (view post)
    We're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. We've just crossed over into, the Gogol zone. Lovejuice's leg was lasted sighted attempting to flee the land of academia, clad in a gold-braided, high-collared uniform, buckskin breeches, and cockaded hat.
    Well, I guess that it's better than losing a nose. At least the phony leg can be identified by its high-top sneakers and foul language.
    I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?

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  15. #40
    Screenwriter Fezzik's Avatar
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    I'm late to the party, but here are some of mine, off the top of my head:

    The Sound and the Fury (Faulkner)
    Out of the Silent Planet (Lewis)
    Beach Music (Conroy)
    A Prayer for Owen Meany (Irving)
    The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas)
    Les Miserables (Hugo)
    Rising Sun (Crichton)
    Sphere (Crichton)
    Time Bomb (Kellerman)
    Hamlet (Shakespeare)
    A Storm of Swords (Martin)


    As an additional note, I like Shakespeare as a general rule, but each time I read Hamlet I like it even more...it's one of those works that astounds me whenever I revisit it...and A Storm of Swords is the best fantasy novel I've ever read. I have no idea how HBO is going to adapt it into a season long series and NOT have it be a disappointment. If they do manage to pull it off, it will be the greatest season of television. Of any show. Ever.

  16. #41
    Gushing Prayer Kurious Jorge v3.1's Avatar
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    I admittedly don't read much but the books I read usually result from seeing a film that adapted them. Such as these two masterpieces...

    Pierre Louvys - The Woman and the Puppet
    Kobo Abe - Woman in the Dunes

    Arrebato (Zulueta - '80) 89
    Elegia (Huszarik - '65) 95
    Szinbad (Huszarik - '71) 77
    Temptation of St. Tony (Ounpuu - '09) 80
    Marguriete of the Night (Autant-Lara - '55)62
    Kadin Hamlet (Erksan - '77) 52
    Passion of a Darkly Noon (Ridley - '94) 79
    Endangered Species (Rudolph - '82) 65
    Made in Heaven (Rudolph -'87) 20
    High Hopes (Leigh - '88) 74

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  17. #42
    the one, the only. . . SirNewt's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Fezzik (view post)
    I'm late to the party, but here are some of mine, off the top of my head:
    Out of the Silent Planet (Lewis)
    Les Miserables (Hugo)
    I just read both of these recently. I enjoyed them both and pride myself on only skipping three pages of Les Miserables. I was really suprised by the Lewis book. It's far superior and would have made a far more interesting film than the Narnia books.

    My favorite book of all time is probably "The Garden of Forking Paths" by Jorge Luis Borges (who actually has many more names than that but I'll spare you).

    I'm reading "The Aleph" right now and it may be on it's way to joining it.





  18. #43
    Screenwriter Malickfan's Avatar
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    The Road - Cormac McCarthy
    Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
    Dermaphoria - Craig Clevenger
    The Phineas Poe Trilogy - Will Christopher Baer
    Bleed Into Me - Stephen Graham Jones
    The Bird Is Gone - Stephen Graham Jones
    Zeroville - Steve Erickson
    A Confederacy Of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

  19. #44
    the one, the only. . . SirNewt's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Malickfan (view post)
    The Road - Cormac McCarthy
    That's on my stack for next month. I'm finishing "The Aleph" then I'll read "Brave New World" and then "The Road" in October.





  20. #45
    Not a praying man Melville's Avatar
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    Because I'm bored and looking for book recommendations, I'm bumping this old thread. My current list:

    1. Moby Dick, Herman Melville, 1851
    2. The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky, 1880
    3. Being & Time, Heidegger, 1927
    4. Notes from Underground, Dostoevsky, 1864
    5. The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner, 1929
    6. Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky, 1866
    7. Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable, Samuel Beckett, 1951-1953
    8. Hunger, Knut Hamsun, 1890
    9. Ulysses, James Joyce, 1922
    10. Critique of Pure Reason, Kant, 1781
    11. Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges, 1944
    12. We, Yevgeny Zamyatin, 1921
    13. Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, 1885
    14. Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne, 1767
    15. Pan, Hamsun, 1894
    16. The Trial, Franz Kafka, 1922
    17. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, 1902
    18. Jacques the Fatalist, Denis Diderot, 1796
    19. Nausea, Jean-Paul Sartre, 1938
    20. The Crocodile, Dostoevsky, 1865
    21. Catch-22, Joseph Heller, 1960
    22. The Outsider, Camus, 1942
    23. The Seducer’s Diary, Kierkegaard, 1843
    24. The Bacchae, Euripides, 406 BC
    25. Being and Nothingness, Sartre, 1943
    26. Pierre, or the Ambiguities, Herman Melville, 1852
    27. Swann’s Way, Proust, 1922
    28. Danton’s Death, Buchner, 1835
    29. Buddhist Wisdom: the Diamond and Heart Sutras, Anon. (trans. Conze), (1958)
    30. The Hunting of the Snark, Lewis Carroll, 1874
    31. The Double, Dostoevsky, 1846
    32. The Ravishing of Lol Stein, Duras, 1964
    33. Temple of the Gold Pavillion, Mishima, 1956
    34. As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner, 1930
    35. The Good Soldier, Ford Maddox Ford, 1914
    36. The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien, 1954
    37. The Sickness unto Death, Kierkegaard, 1849
    38. The Lover, Duras, 1984
    39. King James Bible: Ecclesiastes the Preacher, 250 BC
    40. Account of My Hut, Kamo Chomei, 1212
    41. Introduction to Metaphysics, Heidegger, 1953
    42. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce, 1914
    43. 1984, George Orwell, 1949
    44. Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way, Nagarjuna (Ed. Garfield), 2nd century
    45. Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard, 1843
    46. Blue Eyes, Black Hair, Duras, 1986
    47. Hamlet, Shakespeare, 1600
    48. Eugene Onegin, Pushkin (trans. Johnston), 1833
    49. The Aeneid, Virgil (trans. Dryden), 19 BC (1697)
    50. Lolita, Nabokov, 1955

    with some more favorites in alphabetical order:

    * The Blithedale Romance, Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1852
    * Collected Stories of H. P. Lovecraft, 1917-1935
    * Dune, Herbert, 1965
    * Either/Or, Kierkegaard, 1843
    * The Idiot, Dostoevsky, 1869
    * The Immoralist, Gide, 1902
    * Lord of the Flies, William Golding, 1952
    * The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot, 1917
    * Medea, Euripides, 431 BC
    * Mysteries, Hamsun, 1892
    * The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, Hogg, 1824
    * The Rubaiyat, Omar Khayyam (trans. E. Fitzgerald), 1120 (1859)
    * Season of Migration to the North, Salih, 1966
    * The Soldier and Death, Minghella, 1988
    * Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys, 1966
    I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?

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  21. #46
    Stunt Man endingcredits's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Melville (view post)
    Because I'm bored and looking for book recommendations, I'm bumping this old thread. My current list:
    [
    ]
    1. Kafka - Collected Stories
    2. Rimbaud - Collected Poems
    3. Celine - Death on The Installment Plan
    4. That book by Kierkegaard whose name I can never remember which retells the story of him getting dumped over and over.
    5. The Possessed - Dostoevsky

    Your list reminds me to read Borges.

  22. #47
    Not a praying man Melville's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting endingcredits (view post)
    1. Kafka - Collected Stories
    2. Rimbaud - Collected Poems
    3. Celine - Death on The Installment Plan
    4. That book by Kierkegaard whose name I can never remember which retells the story of him getting dumped over and over.
    5. The Possessed - Dostoevsky

    Your list reminds me to read Borges.
    I'm reading The Possessed right now; it's awesomely ironic and blistering with feeling. The Kafka and Rimbaud are on my to-read list. I'll add the Celine and Kierkegaard thereto. (I'm guessing the Kierkegaard is Repetition.)
    I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?

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  23. #48
    Scott of the Antarctic Milky Joe's Avatar
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    Roberto Bolaño - 2666
    René Girard - Deceit, Desire and the Novel
    Samuel Beckett - First Love
    ‎The severed arm perfectly acquitted itself, because of the simplicity of its wishes and its total lack of doubt.

  24. #49
    Whole Sick Crew Benny Profane's Avatar
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    If I had to make a top 10 today it would go something like:

    1. Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky
    2. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Marquez
    3. Mason & Dixon, Pynchon
    4. In Cold Blood, Capote
    5. 2666, Bolano
    6. Ham on Rye, Bukowski
    7. Go Tell it on the Mountain, Baldwin
    8. Darkness at Noon, Koestler
    9. The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov
    10. JR, Gaddis
    Now reading: The Master Switch by Tim Wu

  25. #50
    Not a praying man Melville's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Milky Joe (view post)
    Roberto Bolaño - 2666
    René Girard - Deceit, Desire and the Novel
    Samuel Beckett - First Love
    First love and Beckett's absurdist dissolutions seem a compelling combination--few things are so dissolving as first love. I've never heard of the Girard, but he sounds interesting. I've been interested in 2666 since you first started pimping it, but it just looks too damned long. You and endingcredits should both make lists, by the way.
    I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?

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